Topkapı Palace
The sultans’ palace on Sarayburnu: courtyards, the Imperial Council, the treasury and the terraces over the water. Dated entry, sold online on its own site.
Galata Tower Museum
Istanbul's Genoese-built Galata Tower, now a museum reopened after a 2020 restoration, with an audio guide and evening openings.
About the museum
The Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in the middle of the fourteenth century, when Galata was a Genoese colony in the Byzantine era, as part of the Galata city walls. In Ottoman times it was used for a while as a dungeon and then became a fire lookout tower.
Fires and earthquakes damaged it repeatedly, and it was renovated several times. By the 1960s the tower was in poor condition, and the Istanbul municipality restored it and opened it to visitors.
In 2020 the General Directorate of Foundations restored it again, removing later concrete additions and the cafeteria, and reopened the tower as a museum. Its exhibition follows the story of a city settled since prehistoric times that served as capital to three great empires for roughly sixteen centuries, and from the upper floors you look out over the historic peninsula.
Tips
- An audio guide is available, and the tower also opens on some evenings as a night museum.
- Visitors under 18 must be accompanied by a parent. The Galata Mevlevi Lodge Museum is a short walk away.
Questions
When is Galata Tower Museum open?
According to the Ministry’s listing it opens at 08:30 and closes at 18:30 (last entry 18:14). Open every day.
Can I buy tickets for Galata Tower Museum on this site?
No. This site sells no tickets. Topkapı Palace, the Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia and Dolmabahçe Palace are sold on our sister sites; for Galata Tower Museum, buy at the ticket office or on the Ministry’s official e-ticket system.
Where is Galata Tower Museum?
Galata Tower Museum is in Istanbul, Türkiye — Bereketzade, Galata Kulesi, 34421 Beyoğlu/İstanbul.
Nearby
Istanbul
Istanbul Archaeological Museums
Türkiye's first museum, a complex of three museums beside Gülhane, holding nearly a million objects from Ottoman lands, including the famous Alexander Sarcophagus.
Istanbul
Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam
In Gülhane Park's former imperial stables, hundreds of replicas of instruments and machines show the science of the Islamic world from the 9th to the 16th century.
Istanbul
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
A 16th-century Ottoman palace beside Sultanahmet Square that holds one of the world's great carpet collections, plus manuscripts, metalwork and everyday Ottoman life.
Istanbul
Great Palace Mosaics Museum
A museum built over a surviving stretch of the Byzantine Great Palace's mosaic floor, with lively scenes of animals, children and mythology, tucked into Sultanahmet's Arasta Bazaar.
Istanbul
Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum
A separate museum beside Hagia Sophia in the Defter-i Hakani building, telling the great building's story in 13 halls with immersive shows in 23 languages.
Istanbul
Maiden's Tower
The tower on a rocky islet off Üsküdar, where the Bosphorus meets the Marmara Sea, reached by a short boat ride from Karaköy or Salacak.
Istanbul tickets online
Four Istanbul landmarks, each sold on its own site by the agency behind this guide — dated entry and free cancellation up to 24 hours.
Basilica Cistern
Justinian’s great underground reservoir: 336 columns in still water and the two Medusa heads. Fast-track entry with a digital audio guide.
Hagia Sophia
Justinian’s cathedral, the sultans’ mosque and a working mosque again today. The ticket admits you to the upper visitor gallery.
Dolmabahçe Palace
A nineteenth-century palace on the water’s edge: the Selamlık, the Ceremonial Hall under its chandelier, the crystal staircase and the Harem.